1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for gathering collagen, and more precisely, it relates to an apparatus for crushing and sucking a fat tissue and separating it into collagen and liquid component.
2. Description of Related Art
For instance, in order to remove depressions, such as senile wrinkles or scars in a cosmetic surgery, it is known to directly inject collagen into his or her skin, using an injector, so that the depressions can be flattened. The collagen is made of fibrous protein which is a main component of a combined tissue which makes up a bone or skin, etc.
In a conventional cosmetic surgery, collagen is usually extracted from a cowhide and refined. However, there is a possibility of an occurrence of an allergic reaction due to heterogeneousness of the collagen (protein) from the human body.
To eliminate the problem with the allergic reaction, the inventors of the present invention have focused on the recent cosmetic surgery in which the fat is extracted from the buttocks or the belly and have proposed in Japanese patent Application No. 2-118016 that the collagen is extracted from the extracted fat and injected into his or her own skin. The collagen which is extracted from his or her own fat tissue is free from the allergic reaction due to heterogeneous protein.
In a conventional method for extracting the fat from the human body, a hollow tubular cannula is inserted into a subcutaneous tissue and is moved in the subcutaneous tissue to scrape the fat which is then sucked outward by a suction pump or the like through a passage formed in the cannula.
However, in the known method, there are drawbacks as follows:
(a) it is necessary for an operator to carefully and troublesomely move the cannula in the subcutaneous tissue which is mechanically crushed or destroyed by the cannula to scrape the fat from the subcutaneous tissue;
(b) it is difficult to precisely scrape the fat at a predetermined portion of the subcutaneous tissue by the cannula which is manually moved by an operator, thus resulting in a decrease in scientific reliability;
(c) there is a large possibility that a soft tissue other than fat can be injured by the movement of the cannula upon scraping the fat; and,
(d) it is particularly difficult to control the bleeding from an cannula insertion portion of the human body and the soft tissue, injured by the cannula.
The primary object of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks mentioned above by providing a collagen gathering apparatus in which the fat can be effectively extracted from the human body and the collagen can be simply and effectively separated from the fat thus extracted.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a collagen gathering apparatus in which the fat can be precisely and simply taken out from a predetermined portion of the subcutaneous tissue by an operator to prevent the soft tissue other than the fat from being injured and to extremely decrease the bleeding.